


Pensive

by Arkanna



Category: Legacy of Kain
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 05:32:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11730510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkanna/pseuds/Arkanna
Summary: Time spent waiting is not always pleasant.





	Pensive

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Legacy of Kain or any of its characters.

Kain leaned back against the stone and stared up at the night sky. In this era there was no smoke to blot out the brightly twinkling stars nor choke the heavens with its dark roiling clouds. Just calm and peace.

In this time he did not exist, his mortal self ages in the future. Odd, Raziel was truthfully older than he, existing in this moment of time threefold. A self-righteous mortal hellbent on ending the vampire scourge, a wraith seeking vengeance and answers to questions he did not even know yet to ask, and a spirit bound as surely as if chained.

He wondered, sometimes, how aware that one was. Perhaps the most powerful thing in existence if it could but speak. It being the source of all paradoxes, past present and future. Already aware of all the timelines, even those that had yet to be born by Kain's own meddling. A soul from a future but glimpsed, one he wished to change.

He would be nearly there by now, Kain realized. Seeking answers from Janos, unwittingly leading the sarafan, leading himself and his brothers to the ancient vampire. Both murdered and resurrected by the same soul, almost a paradox in itself, but those were mere glimpses of possible futures. Alternatives to what now was playing out in a forest leagues away.

He wiggled uncomfortably against the stone, the Sarafan Stronghold, the very structure itself, just as inhospitable as those that dwelled within. He did not like this waiting, but wait he must. His long millenia of existence teaching Kain the importance of patience.

The star's scintillations caught his eye again and led him down the long road of memory. Each point of light, a stop along the way, a moment in time, but a drop in his existence. A battle, a struggle, an attempt to make sense out of his unasked for destiny. Both manipulated and manipulator, grasping at a near impossibility. But nothing was impossible, only highly improbable and even the improbable could be accomplished given enough time.

Unproductive thoughts assailed him and his perch atop the dome made the long night all the more uncomfortable. Waiting oft led to thinking and thinking was not always a welcome thing. A long life such as his filled with many things. Regrets, discoveries, opportunities both lost and found—wisdom, even knowledge could sometimes plague his mind. Knowledge of the outcome of events soon to unfold.

His next meeting with Raziel would bring with it another chance at the impossible. Another change but glimpsed that might alter the future just enough to release him—release them from their preordained destinies.

The stars shone brighter and suddenly Kain felt weary. A long battle yet ahead, it's end he knew not when. Would it be worth the struggle, the price, the sacrifice? Perhaps. Sometimes it all seemed like a dream.

 _Nox est perpetua una dormienda,_ the words came unbidden to his mind. Where Kain had heard them, he did not know but they somehow seemed appropriate. Surrounded by the waiting darkness, in dreams he often wandered. Was all of this real or the final fevered moments stretching for eternity on the tip of an assassin's blade?

 


End file.
